SAN ANTONIO • The 275th anniversary of the founding of the Spanish missions was celebrated with a special outdoor Mass July 14 at Mission San Juan Capistrano.     Presiding at the liturgy was Archbishop José H. Gomez, with principal concelebrants including Father James Galvin, pastor, and Msgr. Balthasar Janacek, archdiocesan director of the Old Spanish Missions.
    The date proved to be fitting, as the Eucharist was celebrated on the memorial of Blessed Kateri Tekawitha.     Born in 1556 near Auriesville, N.Y., she died in 1580 and was beatified on June 22, 1980. She was the first native American to be declared blessed.
    In his homily on the mission grounds, with San Juan Capis-trano providing a dramatic backdrop as the sun dipped below its bell tower, Archbishop Gomez called the historic church a sign of the fact that God is with us.
    “This mission proclaims the message in stone, marble and nature: God is with us. There is beauty in the simplicity of the mission. Today, as we celebrate its 275th anniversary, we think in a special way of God’s presence in our lives,” he said. “God is with us because he wants to be with us. He created you and me to live with him as sons and daughters. Even when we are rejecting him, he wants to be with us.”

    The archbishop recounted how the history of the missions reminds us it is not easy to feel the presence of God in our lives.
    He explained, “In a society that is rejecting God we are witnesses of the presence of God at the beginning of the Third Millennium. In the Gospel, Jesus reminds us it will not be easy: ‘Whoever endures to the end will be saved.’ It’s not easy to be a Catholic nowadays. We need to remember the truth we cannot see ourselves.”

    Archbishop Gomez described how the city of San Antonio was born of the mission Christ gave his church — to spread the truth to the ends of the earth. “We are proud to be Catholic because it is the truth — the truth of Christ. It is the truth we have inherited from our parents and grandparents — the beauty of our faith,” he emphasized.

    The archbishop prayed that this 275th anniversary year be a time of grace and a year of spiritual renewal for the church. “Let us hear the call of love he issues to each of us,” he concluded. “Proclaim the beauty of the Catholic faith to the people of our times.”
    Prior to the conclusion of the liturgy, Archbishop Gomez formally met Josefina Flores, the oldest parishioner at the mission.
    In his introduction, Father Galvin humorously told of watching Flores dart across the busy street in front of the church with boxes of candles for the sanctuary. Saying he scolded the 92-year-old for her actions, she responded, “Don’t worry Father, they’re not fast enough for me.”

    Mission San Juan Capistrano, originally named San José de los Nazonis, was established in East Texas on July 11, 1716. The mission had this name because it was founded in the village of the Nazonis Indians. An invasion from French Louisiana led to a temporary abandonment of the mission in 1617. It was formally re-established among the Nazonis by Marqués de Aguayo in 1721.

    Within a 10-year span, it was moved to the Colorado River, then to its present site on March 5, 1731. A neighboring mission, San José, already existed in San Antonio; it was because of this that it was renamed San Juan Capistrano, or St. John Capistran. He was a great Franciscan saint and an eloquent preacher who traveled all over Europe. He was canonized a saint in 1724, just seven years prior to the founding of the mission named in his honor.

    A reception took place at Slattery Hall located on the mission grounds following the Mass